Soon after the launch, Musk tweeted a live feed of the car and its driver, a dummy named Starman (after the David Bowie song), with Earth in the background.

But that's not the only pop-culture reference in the car.

On the car's center screen are the words "DON'T PANIC!" It's a reference to the words on the cover of the guide in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," the 1979 book that was first in a series by Douglas Adams about an accidental space traveler named Arthur Dent.

Musk, who first read "The Hitchhiker's Guide" as a teenager, has said he loves the book.

When asked in a 2015 interview about his favorite spaceship from science fiction, he said, "I'd have to say that would be the one in 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' that's powered by the improbability drive."